Updated Trial of Meteorological Station Using PV Reference Cell Array

We report on an updated field trial of a new meteorological station concept for resource assessment at the site of a prospective utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) power plant to be developed by 7X Energy. Cost savings are achieved by substituting Atonometrics PV reference cells for thermopile pyranometers in a unique multi-reference-cell array configuration that allows accurate determination of global horizontal irradiance (GHI) and by using advanced remote diagnostics to minimize the need for on-site visits for sensor cleaning. Reference data are also obtained from a second station at the site employing thermopile pyranometers and maintained through weekly site visits for pyranometer cleaning. Data from both stations are compared to industry-leading SolarAnywhere® satellite-derived irradiance measurements from Clean Power Research and are used for tuning of the satellite model for long-term irradiance prediction and site resource assessment. Predicted long-term average annual irradiance using either the reference cell array or pyranometer ground station for satellite model tuning differed by only 0.6%.